


Middle Child

by sh0ck_horror



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:00:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25000525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sh0ck_horror/pseuds/sh0ck_horror
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy
Kudos: 4





	Middle Child

Author's Note - this work crawled out kicking and screaming from my cranium. the first line came to me and the rest just bubbled out so here we go! 

Under normal circumstances, if anyone ever described Andromeda Black as "kind", they would've been met by austere silence and raucous laughter. The raucous laughter would've been the lady's in question. Kind was not a word often used to describe the Blacks, Slytherin or otherwise. Noble, yes - and perhaps one could stretch it to charitable, but kind was rather a stretch. 

Of course, Horace Slughorn did not deal in normality. Slughorn, ever eager to win over the Slytherins he saw seated before him, had paired up Hufflepuffs and Slytherins to brew Veritaserum - Andromeda did not have high hopes. Until she saw Tonks. Shaggy blonde hair, stockily built, with massive hands and neatly cut nails - Tonks triggered in Andromeda the kind of primal fear of the male species she was trying so hard to battle. 

Until he spoke. Andromeda would spend the rest of her life wondering how indeed her life might have turned out had Theodore Tonks not actually spoken to her that day. This parallel life was unimaginable. 

“Um, would you mind switching sides, Malfoy over there looks like he’d hex me if I got too close,” Tonks said while looking at his Muggle shoes. 

Velvet.  
The feeling of dense air when one puts on a record and the sound becomes loaded with potential - Andromeda felt herself grow warmer. Desperate to appear as unaffected as possible, she twirled her wand between her fingers. 

“He probably would,” she replied, signature smirk in place. As of late, the smirk made the resemblance between her and Sirius uncanny, so much so that her mother had told her to cut it out, lest she be considered a blood traitor by association. 

Andromeda was annoyed - she had taught Sirius the “Art of the Smirk”, as he wouldn’t quit calling it. Recently she’d seen Potter do a passable impression. She tried not to let the sting of betrayal get to her. But oh well - Sirius had always been her favourite. 

“Fuck yeah I would”, came Lucius’ drawl.  
“Now, now Lucy,” chirped Andromeda sweetly, “be nice to my Potions’ partner would you? The Malfoys are supposed to be charming aren’t they?”

Lucius looked at his bubbling potion, duly chastised. 

“Besides,” continued Andromeda, “this one’s mine.”  
Something flashed in Tonks’ eyes, and Andromeda swore for a second they were violet - they took her breath away. 

“You haven’t even started Andromeda, don’t make me write to your mother now, the Blacks have gotten the highest marks in Potions since Merlin deemed it a worthy subject” came Slughorn’s smarmy voice from behind Andromeda. 

“Of course Professor, it won’t happen again,” murmured Andromeda, looking down at her favourite pair of Weird Sisters inspired shoes. 

After everyone in the class had brewed their Veritaserums, and Malfoy had experimented with the colour of the potion (showoff) - the partners were then instructed to serve each other. 

Ted and Andromeda had managed to brew the potion in relative silence, working well together despite their relatively new dynamic. Andromeda transfigured Malfoy’s glasses into two shot glasses, filled them to the brim, and gestured for Tonks to take one. 

Ever the sport, Tonks drained it without breaking eye contact.  
Not to be outdone, Andromeda soon followed. 

“Now,” declared Slughorn, “I want you to tell your partner what you like most about them - in one word. This is more of a mental test than your brewing skills, because the Truth is a slippery little bugger.”

Every Slytherin in the room turned to Malfoy and waited. Malfoy in turn, turned to Andromeda - who gave a small imperceptible nod which Lucius then replicated. Having got their orders, the Slytherins lifted and slammed back their “shots” in uncanny unison. 

“Jesus”, mumbled Ted, “a cult of snakes all of you.”  
“Absolutely,” responded Andromeda and Lucius, shooting each other pleased looks at their accidental coordination. 

“Begin,” came Slughorn’s firm command from the front of the room.  
“Miss Black, start us off would you?”

Internally groaning, the Black in question said - “His voice”.  
Confidently, in a tone that brooked no argument and was as intimate as a pat on the back.  
As though all her life Andromeda hadn’t perfected the art of hiding behind brazen truths, the most personal given freely, as though it had no value. 

Tonks’ pupils had dilated so much it looked as though the black was killing colour.  
“Her kindness”, came his response - quiet and slow, unhurried, like the first sip of Butterbeer after a hard day.  
Andromeda felt the hair on the back of her neck rise and hurried to hold her quill before her magic made it float.

A strangled laugh was heard from the back of class, her eyes fell upon a purple Lucius, gasping for air in between muffled laughter. 

Of course. A joke. Had the Hufflepuffs joined the likes of the Gryffindors in their brazen cruelty? 

Andromeda closed her eyes and counted to 4 in French.

Once opened, she was ice. The best and worse of the Blacks rolled into one. She was Andromeda Black, and no Muggleborn scum was ever going to make her feel this way again.

“I didn’t think Hufflepuffs were cruel,” she murmured to Tonks,”or that they could lie so exceedingly well under Veritaserum - I’m even a little impressed. Would you teach me sometime?”

Ted Tonks’ eyes flashed again, full of regret - but regret for what? That she had caught his little trick?  
Who the fuck did he think she was?

No matter, the regret was gone and replaced with a hard flinty look - “I would love to teach you, Ms Black.”


End file.
